The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-02
THE ART OF EMBALMING.
How Bodies OF the Dead Are Preserved Tor Fu
ture Generations.

turc Generations.
Said a Rochester Morning Herald
reporter to prominent undertaken
recently: ~ suppose this warm
weather will cause you to get outyour
refrigerators"
"Well, it would few years ago, put
now you know we never use ice ior pre-
serving O. body except in lew cases
where the friends or relatives object
to our embalming it," :
"That Is more expensive, though III
it not?"
"Oh, no; the cost is about the same
and the trouble is much less. NOW,
YOU see, in using ice we have big pox
to carry around, and where we have
three or four cases at the same Time
we would be obliged to- have several
coolers, but by the new way OF pre-.
serving here is all we have TO carry.
and he laid his hand on what looked
like @ sample case such as Is ordi'
narily carried by liquor salesman.
On opening the case it bore q striK'
ing resemblance to surgeons case
except that on one side were three
quart bottles filled with milky look.
ing fluids. The instruments consisted
of a small knife, lancet such as 10
used by physicians in tapping. and
a syringe with great variety OF noz-,
zles. Hrhis," said the under taker,
picking up the syringe, sis the princi'
bal thing used, and the nozzles are
used in just as many ways as there
are nozzles. Now we use this nozzle
when Wa do not intend to do a regular
lob OF embalming, but simply to pre-
serve the body day or two, and 1t
is used for in iecting the fluid into the
stomach. This is for hypodermic
INJECTION, this for q vein, this Tor an
artery, and this is used for what we
call initiating. That is, If the person
has been sick long time and Is very
thin in the face we insert this in the
face under the ear and force certain
fluid into the face to give it a round
dThen understand that it is not
necessary to fill the veins and arteries
in order to preserve body Tor a lew
days?"
mot by any means. OF course it
depends very much on the condition
of the body when given into our hands,
but ordinarily we inject into the
stomach and intestines and into the
head through the nose and ears. In
a thorough lob, where the body has
to be kept number OF days IN warm
weather, we fill the arteries, ana IN
case OF the sudden death OF "a vigorous
person we usually have to draw out
the blood first. This we are obliged
to do while the body is warm, but we
do not inject the embalming fluid Till
the animal warmth has lett the
body" Il
GLOW long will body retain its
natural appearance that has been
thoroughly treatedY
~ can hardly say. All the way
from one year to ten or even more
and | expect il embalnied a body
lust to see how long could keep it,
It would keep till it was destroyed by
outside agencies. / have moved
bodies that have been buried three OF
: four years that were perfect, only
they were covered with mold"
) How long has the custom OF pre-
serving bodies in this manner been
, common among undertakersY"
ats only been in general use about
five or six years, although the art o.
, preserving bodies with solution o.
: sulphate OF alumina was discovered
by Gaunal about 1884. Substitutes
: for alumina are now used, as sulphntt
of zinc, bismuth and salts OF various
kinds. 1t is q great art and one that
undertakers could hardly get alonl
without now that they have begur
practicing it. Our method is, to b.
: sure, vastly different from that OF thu
: ancients, for their idea was to pre-
! serve the body forever, and to "
: that oil the internal organs had TO ~
removed and the flesh was LITERAL,
dried up, whereas the art OF embalm
: ing as practicted to-day is simply u
a preserve the body in q natural con
Q dition for limited time"